Farewell Kinabatangan

Hunter’s departure saw meat back on the menu… in a big way! On the flip side we were now running solo without our hockey star to remove the log jams from the anchor chain.

On the way back out we stopped by at the village of Abai for some of those yummy fresh water prawns. This was my favorite stop! Elephants passed by not far from the boat and we fell asleep to the sound of their trumpet. Our nightly ritual of showering on the back deck with the cold river water could now be conducted ‘sans clothing’.

The next morning we strolled around town meeting the locals. Here we met Ghafar and Jarima who run the Moido Waloi Homestay. They immediately invited us for a tour of their garden and rice paddy, and then showered us with fresh coconuts, biscuits and mangoes. We made plans for them to visit the boat later that day with promises of smoked fish and fresh veges. Yummy! It was a great afternoon with lots of laughs – the no smiling in photos must be a cultural thing?

Further down the river Sloop managed to sneak in the dinghy for a trip down a creek where we met more monkeys, proboscis, eagles and kingfishers.


We managed to get out the river with only 5cm to spare under the keel. Sloop was rewarded finding a fish on the foredeck that jumped onto the boat – sadly no one would fillet and steam it for him. Off to Sandakan for some chores and preparing for the next leg to the Semporna & Sipidan area.

This is the East coast at Sandakan and our planned route to Tawau - our turn around point.

Note: If you were interested to stay in the Moido Waloi Homestay, this can be arranged through Ghafar on +60109314303 or the Sandakan Tourist Information centre. Highly recommended - great people and lovely location - living with the locals.

Call of the Wild - Sukau

Finally we made Sukau after dogging and pressing through the log jams in the river. I thought Hunter would possess some Canadian Lumber jack skills however he was a little reluctant to jump on a jam after hearing crocodiles inhabit the river.

Another boat Alice, who had entered the river at the same time as us ended up with a big log stuck across the front of their boat while they were away. We tried to move it until they came back without success.


The main objective of coming all the way up the river was to see the Asian Pigmy elephants of which officially only around 130 of still exist. The locals think real numbers are only 70. We took a local boat upstream as it looked as if Thyme might not fit under the power lines, passing the Croc that was waiting for Hunter to jump on a log jam.

We were not disappointed with the turn out. Our driver told us that the Palm oil plantation owners shoot the elephants to keep them from trampling around in their plantations. The female elephant on the right has a scar from a gunshot wound on her right cheek.





Our driver took us home via an Ox Bow lake that’s being slowly over taken by Hyacinth.

The next morning Amanda and I headed out early (early and Hunter don’t work well together) looking for monkeys, birds etc. We nosily passed a few unimpressed tourist boats before finding an old swing bridge made from canvas hose.


Hunter having completed his 2 weeks relatively unscathed, headed back to Sandakan to start his journey back to Toronto and us needing to renew our visa began the trip back down the river. The tide lets us out on the 8th.

Jungles of Borneo - off to the Kinabatangan River

From Tegipil we carried on to Lankayan getting lost in the reef before being pointed in the direction of a mooring owned by the resort located on the island. The snorkeling here was very good; we even spotted a giant stingray.


The Turtle islands was to be our next stop however after anchoring the Park officials paddled out on their surf ski with their “talky talky” so the “big boss” could tell us to go “far far away”. Turns out we did not have a landing permit which apparently we should have got from KK. The fact we weren’t landing was beside the point. We moved far away to the next island but were again told the same thing prompting us to move far far away. During the night we had a good squall 30+ knots and Hunter reviewed his personal belief of not using insect repellant.

The yacht club in Sandakan was a good stop for more supplies, the dentist for me and a chance to watch the All Blacks flog France in the rugby. The bar staff needed a little bit of convincing to change the channel from the badminton but we got there in the finish.

Of course the rugby turned into beers and once back at the boat. Hunter after not coming up with a bomb for Canada that could rival the Aussie "Star Horsie" or the US "Flying Wombat", pulled out the beer shot gun. I must say I was impressed. Not to be attempted without adult supervision it goes something like, Step 1 pierce the can and fold in the torn aluminum. Step 2-hold hole to mouth with tear tab at highest point and open. Two - Five seconds later your no longer thirsty.

With the tides still in our favor we left Sanderkan at 4.30am to cross the Northern bar into the Kinabatangan at 8.00am. All went well and we started the slow trip up stream.

At our first anchorage I managed to get 6 large river prawns off a fisherman going past for the evening BBQ.

We also spotted our first troop of Proboscis Monkeys in the trees near the boat. A closer inspection almost got us lost.

After a night of fireflies we took the dingy to a near by lake early in the morning before heading to the metropolises of Sukau further upstream.